N8ball's Health tips
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I've often wanted to become a personal trainer and take classes on the subject, it's been a fascination of mine for years now. If I can't be a personal trainer, at least I can pass on some of my knowledge to those who are interested.
Eating right isn't about being thin, buff, or hot (ok, maybe hot), but it's about feeling good about yourself and being healthy. It's about maintaining a quality of life that keeps you out of the doctor's office and doing the things that you enjoy the most. And most importantly, it's about following through with loving and respecting yourself. This is all nice and fluffy and good, but most Americans aren't educated enough to do this throughout their lives. Education is the key to maintaining a healthy life style, and I plan on giving out a few of the most potent ones in this article.
Most people falsely believe that caloric intake is the biggest factor in maintaining a healthy life style. This is false in my opinion. My belief is that the biggest factor is nutritional value per calorie. I believe that you should be able to eat whenever you want without limiting yourself, without fad diets, etc., as long as you're eating the right kinds of foods and avoiding empty foods. A good site to check out is http://www.nutripoints.com, it can help you find the foods with the highest nutritional rating that you like.
1) You should be eating all the fresh fruits and vegetables that you desire, and avoid cooking them if you can. They have the perfect balance of vitamins and nutrients that you need. You can't eat too many fresh fruits and vegetables; they are very high on the nutrient per calorie scale. Particularly nutritious is cantaloupe, spinach, and broccoli.
2) Eat cereals that are organic and high in fiber and protein. Kashi has multiple cereals for under $3 a box at Wal-Mart now, there's no need to deposit your paycheck at the health food store for some good breakfast. Look at the picture, does it look processed or not? Whole grain cereals are good, processed cereals are bad. Read the labels and find the best tasting and nutritious cereal you can find, it won't be difficult.
3) Avoid empty flour based foods, even if it's wheat flour. This includes pastas, breads, kiddie cereals, and pretzels. They are all very high on the glycemic index, which means they are empty calories that are low in fiber, and convert extra fast into sugar, spiking your blood sugar levels every time you eat them. These foods are the polar opposite to fresh fruits and vegetables which are high with nutrients per calorie. Eat Ezekiel Bread instead of flour based breads. Ezekiel Bread is low on the glycemic index because it contains no flour, but instead is made from sprouted live grains. It is high in fiber and protein, and has a lot of nutritional value per calorie. It must be stored in the refrigerator, as it is a live grain and doesn't contain any preservatives.
4) Avoid white rice; it is very empty on nutrients because it's been bleached. Instead, find a brown rice alternative.
5) Avoid most dairy. Yes, I said avoid dairy. It is bad for you in so many ways and offers few, if any benefits. The state with the highest instances per capita of breast and prostate cancer is Wisconsin, if that tells you anything. Dairy causes, not prevents, Osteoperosis, for multiple reasons. First, it causes your pH to be acidic and not alkaline, which causes calcium to slough off of your bones to rebalance your pH. Second, it lacks magnesium, which is essential to calcium being capable to absorbing into your bones to make them strong. Too much calcium without magnesium actually makes bones brittle. Green leafy vegetables and broccoli actually have the perfect balance of calcium to magnesium for maximum bone health. If you'd like to speak with my chiropractor about this, please contact me, or go to www.notmilk.com.
6) Avoid carbonated soft drinks. They contain acids that cause your bones to slough off calcium, and it causes your pH to be very acidic as well. Also, soft drinks contain a lot of empty calories and/or carcinogenic sugar substitutes. There is really no redeeming value to carbonated soft drinks.
7) Drink filtered water, not distilled water. Distilled water robs your body of minerals and unfiltered water contains pollutants and chemicals. Divide your body weight by two to find out how many ounces of water you should drink every day.
8) Drink green tea regularly. Green tea has many health benefits, including cancer prevention, vascular and heart health, and it increases your metabolism without increasing your blood pressure.
9) Eat less animal protein, and eat more vegetable protein. I'm more than a little biased being a vegetarian (although I do eat fish occasionally), but this is a healthy recommendation none-the-less. Animal protein causes your body to be acidic as well, which causes bone density loss along with a lot of other degenerative diseases. Overall, being acidic is bad, get your protein from vegetarian sources and your body will be thankful.
10) Cook with coconut oil instead of any other oil. It is healthy in spite of it being a saturated fat. I won't go into reasons here, but it may help respiratory function and helps you lose body fat and gain muscle mass.
11) Eat more fat! Yes, good fat that is. Eat olives, coconuts, and avocados and get better fat in your system, your body needs it to function properly.
12) Eat a high fiber diet. Eating a lot of fiber slows down the speed in which carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar, which means it has a greater opportunity to be utilized as energy instead of being converted into fat.
13) When you go out to eat, try to find the healthy items on the menu and order them. It's not as good as staying home and eating, but at least it's better than a Big Mac and French Fries.
14) Graze like a cow. Eat small portions throughout the day, and not three large meals a day. Grazing like a cow on low calorie, high nutrient foods helps increase your metabolism and helps avoid blood sugar spikes.
15) Avoid vitamins. Yes, avoid them like the plague! They are only fractional nutrients, lacking the thousands of phyto-nutrients and other nutrients that each fruit and vegetable has. If you're going to take anything, take Juice Plus+, a capsule blend that contains 17 fruits and vegetables. It has more clinical studies published in peer reviewed journals than most pharmaceuticals out there. If you want nutrition per calorie, this is the way to go as there are no calories and lots of nutrients from fruits and vegetables. I sell it, so if you're interested, message me and I can send you a link to it.
16) Cheat! Yes, I said cheat. Of all the "avoids" that I listed, cheat here and there and eat them. If you don't, you may find yourself binging every so often; and that is VERY unhealthy. I keep dark chocolate kisses or similar dark chocolate snacks stashed in my room to grab every so often. Dark chocolate is low on dairy and sugar, and high on the antioxidants, so it's not a bad cheat. I also order a pizza, grab a candy bar, drink a coke, get some French fries, get an ice cream cone, etc., etc., every so often, just to keep me honest.
17) Exercise regularly, even if it's just between commercials on your favorite show. Find little things you can do to exercise throughout the day, at work, watching TV, in the morning, before bed, etc. I don't own a gym membership, but I manage to find ways to stay active almost every day, and you can too.
There you have it, a few tips and tricks that I use to maintain a healthy life style. I'm not 205 pounds of hunk, but I do maintain a low body fat percentage and feel great all the time. I'm sure that if you implement some of these lifestyle changes, that you could get to the place where you feel great about and doctor free too!
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on 7/22/2008
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